fuji s5200 review

first off i would consider myself an advanced beginner in the photography ratings. still have a lot to learn but know enough to be dangerous. the fuji s5200 is a very good camera. the pictures you can take with it are of excellent quality and color.the pros: 1.many good features,2.excellent pictures,3.excellent colors in pictures,4.very fast start-up and shot-shot,5.excellent low-light capability,6.good movie pictures.7.camera feels good in hand,8.good battery life (approx. 300-350 shots),9.like the software that comes with pkg.,10.good looking camera. the cons: 1. the digital zoom is not good for pictures (although all cameras are the same)they work fairly well to crop pictures, 2.they could have made lcd screen bigger-plenty of room for 2.5", 3.the menu is rather lengthy and cumbersome to get around in. 4.manual focus is slow and awkward. 5. could use image stabilization-especially at 10X zoom. overall i am very impressed with the camera. one feature i really like is that you can attach voice messages to every picture-i think that will be nice on trips when taking lots of pictures and you can identify pictures. i thought that would eat up memory but it doesn't seem to. in the field of very competitive super-zooms i think this camera is right at the top. some would argue that it needs image stabilization-which would add a nice feature- but the low light capability of this camera leaves the rest of the field in the dust. i would recommend this camera to beginners all the way up to advanced intermediate. sorry this review is so lengthy but with so many features on this camera you could go on and on.